Adenovirus, autophagy and lysis: ecstasies and agonies

Evaluation of: Rodriguez-Rocha H, Gomez-Gutierrez JG, Garcia-Garcia A et al. Adenoviruses induce autophagy to promote virus replication and oncolysis. Virology 416(1-2), 9-15 (2011). This publication addresses the potentiating effects of autophagy induction on adenovirus replication and cell lysis. After demonstrating the induction of autophagy during infection in several cancer cell lines, the authors investigated how adenovirus benefits from this phenomenon. By interrogating the differences in autophagy regulation among wild-type adenovirus, the E1B-deleted Adhz60 and AdLacZ, a nonreplicating adenovirus, the authors present evidence that autophagy is only triggered by a replication-competent adenovirus. Moreover, they show that when autophagy is inhibited, it becomes a limiting factor in oncolytic efficacy. The significance of this report is based on the potential of targeting autophagy modulation to enhance oncolytic adenoviral therapy. This paper evaluation will shed light on the context of these studies, by summarizing previous findings and interpreting the data with regard to oncolytic adenovirus-based therapies.